Desert SW Roadtrip — Day 1

San Jose to Needles, CA — 601 miles

And, so begins the 2 week adventure that will check off 5 new states in our 50 by 18 Project. This trip is all about the desert Southwest. The months leading up to the trip, Valerie and I plotted and schemed the best route to cover, and ultimately ended up with a Google Doc that had a day-by-day plan with sights to see, places to stay, and reasonable mileages to cover with a six year old sandwiched between a pair of four-year-olds in the back of our trusty Jetta Wagon TDI.

However, the first day was anything BUT a reasonable mileage day. We wanted to run as much of the old road of Route 66 as we could going toward Albuquerque. Since we were so close to LA, we might as well stop and visit our friends, Mark and April, and see their new(ish) born daughter, Violet.

An early start for this long day was planned. But, the Friday night after work wasn’t quite as productive as one hopes and the car loading commenced in the morning. Turns out my worries about running out of space were completely unfounded.

Valerie prepared bagels and cream cheese to eat in the car so we could get on the road and stay there with minimal stops until LA. It was a fast burn down I5, with a quick stop for potty and fuel before ascending the Grapevine.

The pond of the tragic scene pictured above is man made. Apparently, the asphalt was quarried out and resulting pond is the remnant of that quarry. However, there is no doubt that the tar literally does still ooze from the ground here.

The girls were fascinated by the prehistoric horse bones. It doesn’t seem they are in any real hurry to extract these fossils; seems the last activity happened years ago based on the rusty tools. What a sticky, gooey mess to have to extract science from.

On our way out of LA, we made a brief detour to drive over the famous Colorado Street Bridge. (infamous? Also known as “Suicide Bridge”.) Built in the early thirties, it screams of Art Deco and was originally a piece of the old Route 66.

And, we are going to get our kicks on this trip?

We most certainly are! The bridge proved to be the first bit of the old road we traveled on.

And, it was worth the detour?

Completely! So much so, no actual photos were taken before, during, or after the get away from the bridge. You’ll have to be satisfied with a link to Wikipedia, instead.

After our scenic detour, it was time to make some miles. For which, LA traffic just laughed in our faces and it was, “gas, brake, honk” all the way to Victorville.

A common site on the old road.Nikon D600, ISO 100, ƒ/2.8, 1/500sec, 24mm focal L., ~75mi from prev photo, map

At Victorville, we departed the freeway to drive a stretch of the Mother Road and make our way off the beaten track. The evidence of a once thriving thoroughfare passed us by nearly as frequently as the mile markers. Old watering holes, gas stations, and motels … all there to make the long journey to/from the Midwest possible.

It was long dark after we finished dinner and there were still a couple of hours to go to make Needles. Since there’s not much to see of the old road in the dark, we made the fast burn down the detested I40.

The o’dark thirty wake up in the morning left three tired girls that sacked out in the back. Arriving in Needles, the Rio Del Sol Inn hadn’t given up on us and obliged us a room for the night — turned out to be one of the better price/quality ratio places we stayed. The sideways sleeping arrangement for the girls, however, was not the best solution, considering we had a travel air mattress in the car. Poor Stella fell off the bed several times…